Equality and human rights

Introduction

Equality and human rights legislation in the shape of the Equality Act 2010 and the Human Rights Act 1998 provides a comprehensive range of tools with which to address breaches of older people’s fundamental rights to freedom, respect, equality, dignity and autonomy.

Age UK works with government and other organisations to ensure this law is implemented effectively and not diminished, and to encourage service providers to take a proactive approach to the promotion and protection of older people’s rights.

It is a well-established fact that the population of older people is large and growing. What is less well recognised is that the older population is also more diverse than ever before and will become more so. We seek to raise awareness of diversity among the older population and develop policy responses which tackle the inequalities faced by specific groups of older people.